Venture Capitalists

[CharlieB]

Hi

I'm just looking to get a better understanding of venture capitalists... currently I think that they are similar to private business investors who invest in small businesses. Is this right? Can someone shed some more light on them?

The reason i'm asking is that i'm trying to find some target markets for my business idea of a website where investors can view videos of entrepreneurs pitching for investment in their businesses. So far I have business angels and entrepreneurs as target markets, i'm trying to work out if venture capitalists would be included in this as well or if there are any other obvious target markets I should be looking to target.

Thanks

Charlie

[Mega B]

Not sure if this is the type of site you had in mind Funding Circle | Peer to Peer Social Lending to Businesses - Funding Circle but i have a fair amount of money invested as a lender in this site and also 3 others its a great idea commonly known as peer2peer lenders.

[CharlieB]

Not sure if this is the type of site you had in mind Funding Circle | Peer to Peer Social Lending to Businesses - Funding Circle but i have a fair amount of money invested as a lender in this site and also 3 others its a great idea commonly known as peer2peer lenders.

Thanks for the reply, in my research I have found a few investment websites but I had the idea for a better one where it would be a combination of facebook and match.com for investing where entrepreneurs have a profile page, upload a video of themselves pitching for investment (dragons den style) and the ability to view the business plan, financial forecasts and accounts on one page... but funding circle is the closest one to it. Does my idea sound significantly different to Funding circle? I'm really exited about my idea and i'm looking to do it for a project in my final year of uni. But I want it to stand out from the rest of them.

[Mega B]

I can see a market for it,exactly how you will do it i am not sure,you could try it in a basic fomat and see what response you get and then i guess you can gear up to a better looking site as and when you get more money to invest in a better site.If you are passionate about it just go for it you could get a site up and running very quickly.I bought a domain about 6 month back and stuck a wordpress script on it just to get it mature i will spend some time on a better design in a month or so as i have mant ventures on the go at the moment.Good luck with it

[CharlieB]

I can see a market for it,exactly how you will do it i am not sure,you could try it in a basic fomat and see what response you get and then i guess you can gear up to a better looking site as and when you get more money to invest in a better site.If you are passionate about it just go for it you could get a site up and running very quickly.I bought a domain about 6 month back and stuck a wordpress script on it just to get it mature i will spend some time on a better design in a month or so as i have mant ventures on the go at the moment.Good luck with it

What market do you see for it? Business investors or anyone not professionally involved in business looking to invest, the idea is being able to see the entrepreneur as well as the business opportunity, for example in dragons den they say that they invest in people as much as the business. I have a talented web designer lined up to work with me as I have no experience in designing websites.

[Mega B]

Well the peer2peer lending i do with 4 differant companies the loans are aimed at both markets ie business and personal i have spread it across a wide spectrum to reduce my risks and the returns that i have been getting are massive compaired to any high rate deposit account,another thing i also do is compound my money to earn a even bigger return over time.It works very well

[CharlieB]

What are the other websites you use?

[Mega B]

Zopa : Ratesetter and Yes secure both my wife and myself have accounts will all of these sites and too the maximum limits allowed.

[CharlieB]

thanks, going back to my original question, is my understanding of venture capitalists correct? and could I see them as a target market for my idea?

[CharlieB]

Will venture capitalists be interested in this idea or would they be investing higher amounts? I'm thinking that the investments will be for less than £1m on this website.

[Machiavelli]

The thing about VC's is that they wont even look at you until you have 50k monthly uniques, and a brandable concept that can't be easily stolen and recreated, that aslo has a long-term monetization strategy.

If you achieve that step and catch their eye, most will be interested in gaining majority ownership and sometimes bringing in their own teams, cutting yours. But this depends on your contract.

However the positives are that they have allot of money to feed you with.

I am an owner of a social tech startup in the San Fran bay area, have dealt with a few in this year and am dealing with others now.